Happy 4th!

Happy Fourth of July to all of you back in the States!  Surprisingly, the Fourth isn't a big holiday here.  Go figure.

Our Independence Day has turned out to be similar to one back home.  He went hiking all morning.  Now we're getting ready for a barbecue.  Kelli will be eating her fill of salmon, which costs about one third as much as it does in Colorado.  I'll be eating yakitorii which is chicken kababs.  We made salsa and bought some sparklers.  We're ready to party.

The hike was nice.  The rainy season has turned the trail into a steep muddy mess.  We had mud up to our knees by the time we finished.  One strange thing was how loud the forest is.  There is a constant drone of birds and bugs.  With the number of mosquitoes attacking us, we thought we'd be covered in bites from head to toe, but it's not too bad.  Maybe our blood doesn't taste too good.

Japan doesn't really have an Independence Day.  They have existed more or less as a people for two thousand years or more.  Only one foreign power has ever occupied their territory for very long....  A local festival in our town has been going on for 400 years in memorial of a large fire.  About the time America was first being settled by Europeans, people were commemorating a town blaze.  We come from a young mixing pot of a country.

To all you people back home, have a happy Fourth!  Savor those bratwurst and that potato salad.  Celebrate the American way: blow stuff up!